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Photo: Raymond Red and John Sayles at the private screening of Amigo.

On Saturday we saw an early cut of John Sayles’s Amigo (formerly titled Baryo), a film set in the early days of the Philippine-American War. It’s a work-in-progress, not yet color-graded or completely scored (though the quiet works), but already 50 IQ points higher than other films about invasion, war, and colonialism.

Joel Torre stars as the cabeza of a village in Luzon at the turn of the 20th century. Ronnie Lazaro plays his brother, the head of the Katipuneros encamped near the village, Rio Locsin his devout wife, John Arcilla his conniving brother-in-law, and Chris Cooper as the head of the American troops who descend on the village in search of the President of the new Republic of the Philippines, Emilio Aguinaldo. I can’t wait to see the finished version. Amigo offers perhaps the most cogent summary of Philippine history between the Spanish and American periods: “We’re being fucked at both ends.”

There is an excellent Filipino movie set in the same period: Virgin Forest, arguably the best film directed by Peque Gallaga, written by Uro dela Cruz. Leo says Amigo could be viewed as an episode from Virgin Forest. Virgin Forest has probably the best summary of Philippine history after the American invasion: “The Americans arrived and taught us to watch movies.”

Thanks to John Sayles and his producer and partner Maggie Renzi for allowing us to see the movie. Thanks to Jaime Augusto Zobel for lending us MyCinema. Spot the ironies in this paragraph.